Texas police seal off polygamist retreat, remove 52 children

April 5, 2008|By Miguel Bustillo Los Angeles Times

HOUSTON — State troopers sealed off a polygamist compound in a remote stretch of Texas Friday and child welfare officials removed 52 girls after a complaint that a 16-year-old had been physically and sexually abused, authorities said.

The investigation at the YFZ Ranch, a walled-off compound just outside the town of Eldorado that is anchored by a towering white temple, came as welcome news to local officials, who have been complaining for years about the compound built by polygamist Warren Jeffs.

"We know they're violating the law, but someone has to raise their hand and testify, and until that happens we don't have anything," said James C. Doyle, the local justice of the peace, who frequently flew over the compound in his private plane.

Texas Department of Public Safety officials disclosed shortly after noon that they were going to execute search and arrest warrants on some of the compound's inhabitants, but did not explain why. As of Friday evening, no one had been arrested, a spokesman said.

A Child Protective Services spokesman confirmed that officials had removed 52 girls ranging from 6 months to 17 years of age. Of those, 18 were taken into state custody due to concerns about abuse and neglect, while the others were being interviewed by caseworkers to determine whether they too should be taken from their parents.

The YFZ Ranch, whose name stands for Yearning for Zion, was built by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints after it purchased an exotic game preserve in 2004.

Jeffs, 52, the self-styled prophet of the controversial Mormon offshoot, was convicted in Utah last year of being an accomplice to rape after allegedly forcing a 14-year-old to marry and have sex with her 19-year-old cousin in 2001.

Jeffs also faces charges of being an accomplice to incest and sexual misconduct with a minor in Arizona.

Marrying more than one woman is illegal in Texas. Although the polygamist followers allegedly do not obtain marriage licenses for their multiple nuptials, citizens of Eldorado, a town of about 1,800 people about 2 1/2 hours from San Antonio, have long called for Texas to investigate allegations that girls there were being promised to men against their will.